Liv in the Woods
by serenityxdragon
Summary: Liv eats the brains of a botany expert found dead in the woods, and finds herself investigating a completely different crime. This is all about the brains, because you can do so much with that.
1. Chapter 1

**First iZombie fanfic, although I guess there aren't many so it's most people's first time. Tell me what you think, I'm just pulling out all the interesting character traits because I love all the possibilities.**

You really tend to appreciate life more when you're dead. The last brain I ate caused me to dye my hair blue and sing karaoke at a bar. I promised I will never do that again.

I bleached my hair the morning before I knew I'd get more brains. It's the only time where I made an effort to look like a zombie. Blue- why blue? And why did I keep it even after the effects of my brains- their brains- had worn off? Bad decision.

"Earth to Liv," Ravi said, waving his hand in front of my face. I looked up with a start. "Brains? Lunch? Yum?"

"Oh," I said. "So who am I eating?"

"You get to be in high school again! I sure hope this one doesn't dye their hair every day," Ravi said. "She was found in the woods barefoot with a rather nasty looking bulletwound."

"Jane Doe?"

"No," Ravi said. "Rowan Lee. Her parents didn't come in to id her, but they reported her missing this morning."

"And you found her-"

"Last night. Don't worry, the weather kept her fresh. Are you-" he gestured with a gloved hand towards the head of the victim.

"We'd better check the color of her roots first," I joked. I felt the hunger start in as I opened up her head carefully, then took out my next meal. I must have been hungrier than I thought, because my hands were trembling as I weighed it and took it into the other room to microwave it.

"Wow, that looks delicious," Ravi said sarcastically as I shoveled food into my mouth.

"32 days," I said. They tasted horrible, but it felt so good. "I don't think I've ever gone that long before."

Ravi looked at me, concerned, then flipped through a few medical papers. I felt the familiar sensation of my body zoning out. My mind focused on a single prick of memory that resided in my stomach.

 _It's an address book- a lady peers through it, flipping a few pages. "Would this work?"_

 _"He can't come on the third. The fifth would work."_

When the memories fades, I take a deep breath and turn to Ravi. "She wasn't alone when she went out there. If she got lost, wandered off, somehow, then was killed two days later-"

"She wasn't alone, as in there was a murderer, or-"

"Friends," I said quickly. "I think. She mentioned a 'he.'"

"Who now?" Clive said, walking through the door. I swallowed, consciously aware of what had just gone down my throat.

"Rowan had friends that she was with before she died," I said. "She mentioned a he."

"Hmm," Clive said. "The parents didn't mention a boyfriend."

"Well, did you ask?" Ravi said. "Like they'd just volunteer that. Hi, yes, my dead kid had a boyfriend, thanks for all the work that you do. Want some tea?"

"Time for a visit," Clive said. "Come on, Liv." I looked at Ravi and he gave me a thumbs up.

* * *

"When did you know she was missing?" Clive asked, leaning forward intently.

"When Bryan called me and asked if she was there," Mrs. Lee said. "He didn't know where she was either. She was with her other friend- A- anna. They were filming in the woods on the fifth, and she stayed over with Anna that night. I guess she went for a walk, and- well, you know the rest."

"And Bryan was..." Clive trailed off.

"A friend from school. So was Anna. Is that-?"

"We'll have to talk with them about what happened too. Do you have a way to contact them?"

"I can get you their addresses and numbers. Anything I can do, just ask."

"Liv, ringing any bells?" So far, I had gotten nothing. Even the house didn't jog my memories. Well, her memories.

"Can I see her bedroom?" I asked.

"Of course. I'm sorry for the mess," Mrs. Lee said.

"Not a problem," Clive said. There was a cage of stick bugs to the right of the door, a fish tank directly in front of us, a rather large space on the dresser filled with small statues and various plants, and the smell of lavender and two other indiscernible plants . That something else was on the verge of triggering a memory.

"That plant," I said, curious. "What is it?"

"I don't know," Mrs. Lee said. "That's it, though." Several different plants were hanging on a hook.

"Where did she get it?"

"Probably the woods where she took her friends," she said. "She went there a lot."

"Liv?" Clive said.

"That smell," I said. I had finally realized that the scent wasn't triggering Rowan's memories, it was triggering my own. There had been little pieces of plant on her jacket- a rather specific combination of plants. I sniffed at the plants, quite aware of how weird it was. Two of them were oddly familiar.

"Clive, where was she found?"

"On one of the main roads. Right smack in the middle. A jogger found her body."

"She must've been dragged," I mused. Unless she rolled around in those plants while she was alive, I doubt she would have picked up that scent.

"To the scene of the crime?" Clive asked.


	2. Chapter 2

**I am numb from the latest episodes. (in a good way) Reviews make my day. Just saying.**

"That was where she was found?" I said. I noticed the dark brown of drag marks heading into the woods. I sniffed experimentally, but there was nothing. "Let's follow it."

I somehow knew where to place my feet to avoid stepping on the tracks. Clive walked behind me like a blundering idiot, destroying the first two signs. "Hey!" I said indignantly. "You stay back there and stop stepping on the tracks!"

Clive put his hands up in defense. "Okay! Okay."

I measured the distance between two footprints with my hands, then used that to find the next print. How did I know what I was doing? I'm honestly not sure, but the tracks were deep and easy to follow. Finally I broke out of the dense and battered undergrowth and found myself next to a river.

My nose twitched. The strong scent that I had recognized was nearby. "Mugwort!" I said, taking a big sniff. Then I looked at it strangely. How did I know this? How did Rowan know this? And then I realized that I instinctively knew that the plant towering over it was salmonberry. There was a patch of weedy herb robert also growing by the stream. I crushed up a leaf and took a whiff.

"Found it," I texted Clive. "Follow the path I made."

I began to search around. There was a rotted log over the stream with a ton of white mushrooms- _oyster mushrooms_ \- on it. I felt myself go into a memory.

 _I'm standing ankle deep and barefoot in the river, reaching towards the mushrooms, when someone cracks a twig behind me. I spin around, face to face with an armed man. His face is uncovered, his nose crooked like it was once broken. Straw yellow hair pokes out from under a fedora, and he's carrying a black backpack. He towers over me, knocks me to the ground and shoots me once point blank in the chest._

When I recovered from my vision, I found myself kneeling in the river. I looked up into Clive's concerned face.

"Tough vision?" he said, helping me up. I tried to brush myself off, but there was too much water for that.

"She was… harvesting mushrooms when she was shot by someone," I said, taking in deep breaths. "She was just a witness. Was there a crime in the area?" I looked at him. He stared back.

"I'm in the homicide department, I don't do ordinary crimes," he said. "But I can check. Come on."

I filled in Ravi on the case when I got back to the morgue.

"How are the brains working out?" Ravi said. "No irrational urges to-"

"Don't! Even say it."

"I was gonna say to sing in a karaoke bar..." Ravi whined.

"Right. Actually, they're going very well. Despite the fact that the thought of eating chicken makes me want to vomit."

"Ouch, vegetarian brains?" Ravi said, wiping up the table. "That must be depressing."

"It's worse than that," I said, with a hint of amusement in my voice. "I've started checking the ingredients to everything. It's terrible, Ravi, I can't even eat cheese anymore, and the worst part is that I don't even feel like I'm missing anything!"

"That is worse than depressing," he said, holding up a plate of chicken. I cringed. "What about brains?"

"Ugh," I said, a shiver running down my spine. "As soon as this case is over, I need new brains. Force feed me if you have to."

"I promise. But what about the case?"

"Less helpful than usual. She seems to have just been a witness. There wasn't a reason that I could see, she was just… in the way. Blam." Liv put her hands together and made the motion of a gun going off.

"Okay, I'm curious, do you have the sudden urge to go get wasted in a bar with a fake id?"

"No! Ravi!"

Ravi smirked. "Just checking. Has Clive gotten back to you?"

"No, I'm not sure what's going on."

"Well, there's nothing more I can tell you about the body. It's all on Clive now, especially if her brains aren't coming throu- hey, Clive."

"Were you talking about me?" Clive said, thankfully missing the crack about the brain, or at least not understanding it. "Liv, there was an armed robbery on the day she died at the bank. Right next to the forest. Looks like your vision panned out."

"Yep," I said, falsely cheerful. He didn't seem to notice that, either.

"He was arrested yesterday, we can go in and question him whenever you're ready." Despite his words, his eyes told me that we had to go now.

"I'm ready," I said. I wasn't. I was feeling all my emotions more intensely- a side effect of the brain, or that this was a talented kid with a nice family and a future ahead of them who was gunned down for no reason? I didn't want to face my- her- murderer.

"Look," the man babbled. "The gun was empty, okay? I would never have shot anyone. I just went in, got the money and ran out, right? It was empty. It was empty. Ask the people who found the gun, I never loaded it, I swear."

"Where did you run to?" Clive asked.

"My house," he said frantically. "I- I- I-"

"What kind of gun were you using?" I said, leaning against the wall behind him. He looked back, his eyes wide.

"I dunno, I stole it from my friend, some handgun I think. I- I've never touched a gun before then, I was just desperate, I had been kicked out of my apartment and I didn't have any money left- please-"

I didn't need to hear his whining to know that he didn't do it. His nose had never been broken and his hair was dark brown. He was skinny and malnourished, his face hollow and sunken in. "He isn't a murderer," I said reluctantly. As much as I would have loved him to be the right guy, he didn't use the right gun and he looked completely different.

We had to keep looking.


End file.
